Mixed Berry Three Cheese Blintzes

To download a cookbook-style copy of the recipe for Mixed Berry Three Cheese Blintzes, click HERE.

Blintzes – eastern Europe’s simple and delicious version of a crepe – are perfect for breakfast, a light lunch, or dessert. This week’s recipe, Mixed Berry Three Cheese Blintzes, takes an early Kissing the Cook post for blintzes and reworks it in a new – and, I think, better - way.

Although fruit fillings are often used, the classic blintz is filled with a sweet cheese mixture made with cream cheese and either farmer cheese, cottage cheese or, in more modern versions, ricotta. This recipe combines both fruit and cheese. For the syrup topping and the fruit in the filling, I used a blend of fresh strawberries and fresh blueberries. For the cheese filling, to be consistent with the blintz’ eastern European origins, I combined farmer cheese (which has a consistency similar to ricotta) with the cream cheese and cottage cheese. If you don’t have farmer cheese available, or otherwise prefer not to use it, no need to worry; my grandmother, originally from Kiev, used cream cheese and cottage cheese in her blintzes.

A Cook’s Note before we begin:

• A significant difference between this recipe and typical blintz preparations is that blintzes are normally cooked twice: once to cook the crepe, and once to fry or bake the filled blintz to brown the outside and cook the eggs in the filling. In my version, there are no eggs in the filling; except for the warmed mixed-berry syrup on top, the blintzes are served cold or room temperature instead of fried or baked. It’s an unusual way to serve a blintz, but having grown up eating the ones my grandmother made this way, I can assure you it can work wonderfully. (It’s still possible to fry or bake them if that’s what you prefer.)

The following recipe makes about 10 blintzes. Here’s what you’ll need:

For the crepes: 1 cup AP flour; ¼ tsp salt; 2 Tbsp melted butter substitute; 2 egg-substitute eggs; 1-1/2 cups skim milk; and butter substitute or oil for cooking crepes

For the cheese filling: ½ pound farmer cheese; 1 cup low fat cottage cheese; 8 ounces low fat cream cheese, softened; 3/8 cup sugar; 1/8 tsp cinnamon; 1/4 tsp salt

For the fruit syrup and filling:

1 cup granulated sugar; juice of ½ lemon; ½ teaspoon salt; pinch ground nutmeg; 1 lb. fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered; 1 cup fresh blueberries; confectioner’s sugar for garnish

First, we’ll make the crepe batter:

Combine flour and salt in a bowl, and form a well. Pour the egg-substitute eggs and skim milk into the well. Add the melted butter substitute and mix into the other liquids in the well.

Once the liquid ingredients in the well are combined, gradually mix in the dry ingredients. The result should be a thick batter with the consistency of heavy cream.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

While the crepe batter is resting, prepare the cheese filling and mixed berry syrup and filling as follows. To make the cheese filling:

Put all the filling ingredients into a bowl and mix until well combined and fairly smooth. Refrigerate until needed.

To prepare the syrup topping and fruit filling:

Place a small glass plate in the freezer and put the granulated sugar and the lemon juice into a saucepan. Stir the mixture in the saucepan until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the salt, nutmeg and strawberries and turn the heat on very low. Cook until the strawberries are softened but not mushy, about 10 minutes.

Add the blueberries and cook until softened, about another 10 minutes.

Strain the fruit mixture, retaining the liquid. Set the fruit aside to cool.

Return the liquid to the saucepan. Simmer the liquid until a few drops cooled on the frozen plate have a syrup consistency. Set aside till needed.

While the cooked fruit is cooling, cook the crepes as follows:

Heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat; remove the pan from the heat and melt about 1 tsp of butter substitute. Add about ¼ cup of batter, swirl around to cover the surface of the pan, and put it back on the heat.

When the crepe is lightly browned on the bottom and firm enough to be flipped (usually about one to 1-1/2 minutes, but keep an eye on it), turn or flip the crepe and cook on the opposite side till it has the desired brownness.

Stack the crepes on a plate, covered with a clean towel to keep from drying out. Repeat the above steps for each crepe, rebuttering the pan as needed.

Working one at a time, prepare the blintzes as follows:

Lay a crepe out flat. Put 1/4 cup of cheese filling half-way between the center-line and edge nearest you.

Place a little of the mixed berry mixture on top of the cheese.

Fold the crepe as you would a burrito. First, fold the edge nearest you over the filling.

Fold in the left and right sides.

Roll the crepe away from you to form the blintz.

To serve:

While warming the reserved mixed berry syrup, sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar on a plate as a garnish.

Place one or two blintzes on the plate, and pour a little of the syrup on top.

To download a cookbook-style copy of the recipe for Mixed Berry Three Cheese Blintzes, click HERE.

Hope you enjoy the comfort of this very special dish! And please visit again next week. Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Lump Crabmeat Hash with Lemon-Sage Aioli

To download a copy of the recipe for Crabmeat Hash with Lemon-Sage Aioli, click HERE.

Hash, that great comfort food, has been the subject of a previous post here as Turkey Hash Pie. This week we’re taking hash in a completely different, and no less delicious, direction. Imagine lump crab meat and crisp potatoes combined with sautéed vegetables and just a kiss of bacon, topped with a cooked egg (a hash tradition), and dressed with a lemon-sage aioli. It’s easy, full of great taste, and - just as important - allows plenty of room for you to customize the ingredients to your liking!

Some Cook’s Notes before we begin:

• In this recipe, I’ve used a good quality canned lump crab meat. Cooking fresh crab is never wrong, and can even be downright glorious, but it's not practical to do at all times and in every place.

• For the aioli – basically, garlic-infused mayonnaise – you can make your own mayonnaise base if you like, but I went with a prepared jar of low-fat mayonnaise. (After making marshmallow cream from scratch for a cake frosting in last week’s post, I thought we deserved to use something in a jar this week.)

• The traditional egg accompaniment is usually sunny side up or poached, but make whatever kind you like; it’s your hash, after all. (I make mine sunny-side up as in the photo at the top, but make similar portions for my wife and son topped with scrambled eggs.) In cooking, as in all things, an important lesson about doing things “by-the-book” is this: Do you know who wrote “the book?” Nobody.

•  A special thanks to loyal reader (and good friend) Kim, a great cook and life-long New Englander, for helping a north Jersey guy with valuable insights into seasoning crabmeat.

This recipe makes 4 servings.

Let’s start by making the aioli.

Chop two garlic cloves. Use the flat of the knife blade to press them into a paste.

Combine the garlic paste in a bowl with ½ cup low fat mayonnaise; 1 tablespoon dried sage; 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice; and kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste.

Whisk until smooth, then cover and set aside till ready to serve.

To get the potatoes started:

Par-bake 2 pounds of russet potatoes for about 1/3 the amount of time it would take to bake them fully (approximately 4-5 minutes in a microwave, or 15-20 minutes in a 425 degree oven). When the potatoes have cooled enough to handle, peel and cut into 1/2" cubes.

Prepare the vegetables as follows:

Cut ¾ of a green bell pepper into a ½” dice. Cut the remainder into a fine dice and place in a small dish, separate from the larger dice. Do the same for a red bell pepper. Cut ¾ of a large celery rib into 1/8” slices. Cut the remainder into a fine dice and add to the fine-diced peppers.

Cut a medium onion into a ½” dice.

To cook the hash:

Heat 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. Add the potatoes, season with a little salt, and cook for several minutes until the potatoes are browned and crisp. Set the cooked potatoes aside in a bowl.

Using the same pan over medium-high heat, cook 2 ounces of turkey bacon, chop into pieces, and add to the potatoes.

Adding a little oil to the pan only if necessary, cook 2 cloves of minced garlic till aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add the ½” diced peppers, the 1/8” celery slices, the onion, ¾ cup of corn kernels and 1 bay leaf. Sauté till cooked. Add the potatoes, bacon, crab meat, 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1 tsp dried tarragon, and ¾ tsp hot sauce. Cook till heated through, about two minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Divide the half into four portions and keep them warm (such as in a warm oven) while you prepare the eggs.

Next we’ll cook our eggs. Cook them any way that is desired. Sunny side up, prepared as follows, is frequently used. Cook one egg for each serving.

In a non-stick pan over medium heat, melt just enough butter substitute to coat the pan. The pan should be large enough for the number of eggs being cooked, or work in batches. Break the eggs into the pan, being careful not to break the yolks.

Immediately reduce the heat to low. (If firmer whites are desired, add ½ tsp of water per egg to the pan and cover with a lid or plate. For looser whites, don’t add the water and keep the pan uncovered.) Cook slowly, usually 2 – 3 minutes, until the whites have set and the yolks have started to thicken. (The doneness of the yolks can be checked by gently shaking the pan and seeing how the yolks move.)

Near the end of cooking, baste the eggs with melted butter substitute.

Season with salt and pepper after the eggs have finished cooking.

To serve:

Using a spatula, top each serving of hash with one of the eggs.

Garnish each serving with the fine diced green pepper, red pepper and celery.

Top with lemon aioli for serving.

To download a copy of the recipe for Crabmeat Hash with Lemon-Sage Aioli, click HERE.

Serve as is or with a favorite side dish, and you’re all set for a great meal your family and guests will love!

Visit us again next week for more tasty meal ideas! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

  

Smoked Salmon Quiche Potato Skins with Irish Potato Farls

To download a copy of the recipe for Smoked Salmon Quiche Potato Skins with Irish Potato Farls, click HERE.

Quiche remains one of the great versatile dishes; it’s easy to make, the varieties of filling ingredients you can use are limited only by your imagination, and it serves equally well for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

I guess you can tell I like quiche.

In this week’s recipe, we give quiche a delicious, Irish-inspired twist: Smoked Salmon Quiche Potato Skins. And, for good measure, we’ll use the scooped-out potato flesh to make Irish Potato Farls, a tasty potato pancake that works nicely as a side with the quiche.

A few Cook’s Notes to get us started.

• You’ll notice that the quiche filling includes some pancake batter ingredients. This is done to lighten the texture of the filling a bit.

• If any of the potato skins tear while you’re scooping out the inside, don’t worry. Using your fingers, just press some of the soft potato flesh you’ve scooped out onto the tear to patch it. (If you’ve ever spackled nail holes before painting a wall, you’ll have the idea.)

• Rather than making individual patties as we’ll do in this recipe, farls are normally made as a large patty that is then cut into four wedges. (“Farl” is from the Gaelic fardel, meaning “four parts.”) You can do that here too, if you like.

• If you have any extra quiche filling, save it. It makes a great frittata!

• You’ll see some chopped tomatoes and herbs in the background of several of the photos, but that are not mentioned in the recipe. These were for the simple salad I served with the quiche.

This recipe makes 8 half-potatoes quiches. (That’s 4 hearty servings or 8 light-meal servings.) It also makes 6 – 8 farls.

To bake the potatoes:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pierce four large russet potatoes with a fork several times. Lightly rub the outside of each with some butter substitute.

Bake until the inside is soft and the fork penetrates easily, about 60 minutes. While the potatoes are baking, prepare the quiche filling as described below.

When the potatoes have finished baking, set them aside till they have cooled enough to be handled.

To make the quiche filling:

Prepare ¾ C shredded Irish cheddar cheese, 2 cloves minced garlic, ¼ cup fine-diced onion, and 8 ounces of chopped smoked salmon. Set aside.

In a bowl, whisk the following ingredients together to make a batter:  1 C plus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour; 1 tsp baking powder; ¼ tsp salt; 1 Tbsp sugar; 1 egg-substitute egg; ½ C skim milk; and 2 Tbsp melted butter substitute.

In a bowl, combine the cheddar cheese, garlic, onion, and smoked salmon; 2 egg-substitute eggs; ½ C skim milk; ½ tsp salt; a pinch of fresh ground black pepper; 2 Tbsp capers; and 2 tsp dried dill.Whisk in the batter, and set aside until ready to use.

To make the quiches:

When the potatoes have finished baking and have cooled enough to handle, cut each in half length-wise. Using a spoon, carefully scoop out the inside of each half-potato, leaving about ¼“ thickness. Reserve the scooped-out potato flesh in a bowl.

Place the potato skins on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicon sheet. Fill each with the quiche filling. Bake for about 20 minutes, turning the baking sheet half-way, until the filling is firm and a knife or skewer inserted comes out clean. When done, let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

While the quiches are baking, make the farls as described below.

To make the farls:

Combine the scooped out potato flesh with 3/4 cup all-purpose flour; 1-1/2 Tbsp melted butter substitute; 2 Tbsp finely chopped onion; 2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary; 1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme; ½ Tbsp salt (plus additional to taste); and a pinch of fresh ground black pepper (plus additional to taste). Mix until it has a dough-like consistency, adding a little more flour if necessary. (The batch in the photos required the addition of another ¼ cup of flour; a lot will depend on your potatoes.) Knead the dough lightly for about a minute.

Cut the dough ball into six or eight pieces. Roll or pat each piece out to about ¼” thick.

Place them in batches in a lightly-oil non-stick pan and cook until browned, 3 – 4 minutes per side. As you finish each batch, place the cooked farls on a plate and cover with a clean towel while you cook the others.

When the quiches are farls are ready, serve one or two potato skins and one or two farls on each plate. Garnish the quiches with a bit of dried or fresh parsley. (For a nice added touch, serve a salad on the side. It’s the perfect accompaniment to quiche!)

To download a copy of the recipe for Smoked Salmon Quiche Potato Skins with Irish Potato Farls, click HERE. 

And there you have it: a lovely (and easy!) Irish-inspired meal that you didn’t even have to wait till St. Patrick’s Day to make. (These reheat pretty well, too, so enjoy any leftovers the next day.)

Please come back next week to enjoy another kitchen-tested recipe! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Refreshing Cold Fruit Soup with Toasted Reduced-Fat Pound Cake

For a cookbook style copy of the recipe for Refreshing Cold Fruit Soup with Toasted Pound Cake, click HERE!

Last week, we started a refreshing summer food theme with Shrimp Rolls with Drawn Butter on Herbed One-Hour Bread. I’m pleased to continue that theme this week by offering an easy, delicious recipe for Refreshing Cold Fruit Soup with Toasted Reduced-Fat Pound Cake.

The idea is simple: prepare a full-bodied, tasty cold fruit soup and, on the top, float some freshly made reduced-fat pound cake that has been gently toasted, coated with a thin layer of apricot preserves, and garnished with fat-free yogurt, a sprinkling of chopped walnuts, and a bit of small fresh fruit. Delicious individually, but when combined on the same spoon it’s an explosion of refreshing flavors and textures that’s sure to please.

Some Cook’s Notes before we begin.

• When making the pound cake, the importance of making sure your ingredients are at room temperature cannot be over-emphasized. It’s the difference between the cake having the proper texture, and having a texture that’s just a bit heavy. (If, for any reason, the pound cake does come out a little heavy, however, don’t fear; once you place it on top of the Fruit Soup, it will absorb some liquid and soften, and will taste great anyway!)

• For baking the pound cake, I used a large (15” x 10”) baking dish. If your pan is too small, the pound cake will come out too thick. We’ll slice it to half-thickness for putting on top of the soup.

This recipe makes about three quarts of fruit soup with enough pound cake to accompany that.

First, let’s make our pound cake.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Using an electric mixer, mix 2 cups of sugar and ¾ cup of room temperature butter substitute until creamy.

Slowly add the following ingredients and continue mixing till combined: 1-1/2 cup AP flour; ½ cup pastry flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 1-1/2 tsp each vanilla extract; juice and zest of 1/2 lemon; 1 cup fat-free room-temperature yogurt; and 5 egg substitute eggs at room temperature.

Pour the batter into a large baking pan. Bake for about 1 hour, turning the pan half-way for more even baking. (You can make the fruit soup while the pound cake is baking.)

When done, set the pound cake aside to cool.

To make the fruit soup:

Bring 8 cups of water to a boil in a large pot.

Add 1 cup of sugar, 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, seeded and rough chopped; 1 lb. pears, peeled, seeded and rough chopped; and the juice of ½ lemon. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Add 2 lbs. peaches, peeled, pitted and rough chopped; and ½ small cantaloupe, removed from rind and rough chopped. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Add 1 large sliced banana, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1//4 tsp nutmeg, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, puree the fruit mixture for about five minutes to create a smooth liquid.

Mix 2 Tbsp of cornstarch with ¼ cup of cold water to form a slurry. Add the slurry to the fruit mixture and let simmer for another 5 minutes.

When finished set the soup aside to cool, then refrigerate till ready to serve. (Serve cold or room temperature.)

To serve the soup:

Pour each serving of soup into a bowl.

Using a large cookie cutter (round, heart-shaped, or any other desired shape), cut a piece of pound cake that will fit on top of the soup in the bowl. Slice the piece you cut into two pieces, each half the thickness of the full piece. Lightly toast the pound cake slices, apply a thin layer of apricot preserves to each.

Garnish the pound cakes with a dollop of fat-free yogurt, some chopped walnuts, and a few small fruit pieces.

For a cookbook style copy of the recipe for Refreshing Cold Fruit Soup with Toasted Pound Cake, click HERE!

Hope you enjoy this easy, refreshing summer treat!

Please visit again next week for another great-tasting, easy-to-make recipe! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)